Thursday 14^th July – Erdek – Yigitler, Avşa Adasi

40:30.045N 27:31.484E

We finally managed to work out how to slip our lines this morning and leave Erdek.  It wasn’t easy for a couple of reasons: firstly, we had become very comfortable there; secondly, we inevitably had a problem with our anchor and chain as it had been fouled by our neighbour (we hadn’t seen anyone leave Erdek without a problem so we weren’t surprised).

Having witnessed the carnage in Mykonos we were well stocked with ideas on freeing fouled chains, though a little surprised by the encounter with our first obstacle.  I was hoisting the anchor and saw that we were fouled.  Richard came forward to help and I continued hoisting and we found we had the remains of a white plastic chair attached to our chain.  We managed to shake it free and then encountered the next problem, our neighbour’s anchor chain – it was apparent that when the German boat pulled out our neighbour’s anchor yesterday they had lifted it over our chain so it was using our chain as its setting rather than the mud (he had been leaning on us from time to time so we were not surprised to see he wasn’t set properly).  Fortunately the wind is very light in the harbour and from astern so the boats are being held on their stern lines, the catenary on the anchor chains is just being used to hold the boats straight.  Using a rope cleated at our bow to take the load off the chains we were readily able to free ourselves. 

With the excitement over, as soon as we were out of the harbour we pulled the genoa out and sailed most of the way here to Yigitler, a 15 mile trip, so not far.  It was nice to be able to sail but the wind conditions were variable – the land effects meant we had wind varying from zero to 20 knots, fortunately being in the lee of the land meant there was hardly any swell.

Yigitler is a relatively new harbour on the east side of Avşa Adasi (Turkeli), in Büyük Liman.  In the harbour we saw two yachts alongside, being blown onto the quay; we chose an alongside berth that allowed us to be blown off and one of the guys from one of the other yachts came to catch our lines.  As I approached the wall nose first and into the wind, I saw the depth reducing and warned Richard.  As we pulled the stern round onto the quay, the depth reduced quickly.  We are clear of the ground but it is very shallow.  We will have to be careful when we leave.

Late afternoon we went for a walk into the village and along the beach.  We returned to Pyxis and picked up beach towels and swimming things and returned to the beach where we sunbathed for a while; I had wanted to swim but when I saw the ugly sight of rubbish, dead jelly fish and seaweed all lined up to welcome me as I stepped into the sea, I changed my mind – the locals seemed blind to it but I guess I’m a bit squeamish.

We called at a restaurant cum vintners on the way back to Pyxis and looked at the locally produced wines on offer there; the grapes for the wine are grown on the slopes we can see from the stern of Pyxis.  The price was reasonable too, especially for Turkey.  So, we bought a couple of bottles, one of which we sampled this evening – rather nice, makes a pleasant change from the cheap plonk we normally have.

Erdek at night

Yigitler, Avşa Adasi

© Pyxis 2011